Another interesting find while perusing the internet the other day…this one, however, just made me sad.
You might remember Sammy the Shark, former occupant of the giant fish tank in the front of the bar. Which reminds me, I never finished the story of what happened to Sammy. He's no longer at The Sandbar, but he has a happy new home.
Anyway, I saw an article online that was describing how hundreds of millions of sharks are being harvested every year for their fins- which are then used to make "upscale" shark fin soup. Chinese people apparently will pay over $100 for a bowl of this stuff. It used to be reserved for the very wealthy class, but the explosion of middle-class has caused a dramatic rise in the demand for what is said to be a flavorless, chewy delicacy.
It's amazing how you can slap a huge price tag on something and instantly it's considered upscale and exclusive and in-demand.
Perhaps it was a good thing we did, rescuing Sammy when he was just a baby shark out in the ocean. He led a seemingly happy life in Lawrence and later Ottawa before ending up at Predator World.
Leave it to the middle class to f*ck up everything. Next thing ya know they’ll be eatin’ mons veneris.
Hundreds of millions? I guess I didn’t realize there were so many sharks out there.
that was the point of the article, i think- that the shark population is being seriously depleted.
i have absolutely no desire to ever sample shark fin soup.
Sharks have been around for millions of years (compared to man’s tens of thousands of years) and they will be here long after we are gone. Might as well sample them while they are around. Although I am opposed to eating predators.